A clinical trial to compare plaque removing efficiency of a prototype toothbrush with alternative toothbrushes

Three alternative toothbrushes were investigated in a double blind Latin Square repeated measures design study for their relative efficiency at removing plaque 'in vivo'. A prototype filament suspension design toothbrush was tested, with the suspension mechanism both active and inactive, against a conventional toothbrush. Following an initial control plaque score, subjects were ordered by oral hygiene levels and randomly allocated to each of the three test groups. The trial was made up of three periods of 14 days consisting of four days of no brushing followed by 10 days of brushing with each of the three toothbrushes. All plaque scores were recorded using the Greene and Vermillion Index of Oral Hygiene and plaque scores were recorded for each patient at the start, four days later and at the end of each 14-day period. There were no significant differences in the quantity of plaque remaining after brushing with any of the brushes tested in this study. Ignoring the toothbrush used, the end brushing average plaque scores for period 1 were found to be higher than the control plaque scores. It is suggested that this resulted from the patients finding new toothbrushes less comfortable to use initially but following a period of accommodation and adjustment, end brushing plaque levels in subsequent periods returned to near the same level as the control plaque score.